A month ago before a flight, I got water in my ears, and I couldn’t get it to drain. It was bugging me.  And then I came down with a bug that didn’t seem to want to go away.  I decided I’d better go to the walk-in clinic and get looked at before I ended up with “helmet head” from flying with water in my ear.  It would certainly ruin my trip.

I arrived at the walk-in clinic first thing in the morning. I think I was there third patient.  I waited about 20 minutes and was lead to the exam room.

The nurse came in, took my blood pressure and temperature, and asked me what was wrong, took notes and left the room.

I then waited another 10 minutes before the infamous knock on the door came, and a pretty young, but tall and heavy-set blond woman entered the room.

Her face was radiant.  She was clearly a happy individual who loved what she was doing.  She stood out to me in her demeanor for a doctor.  She was super pleasant and amenable. She had an almost baby-face and by her sincere smiles alone, I liked her a lot.

She was remarkably down-to-earth. I knew I had never met a doctor like her before.

She looked in both of my ears, listen to me, let me asked questions and confirmed I definitely had water in my ear that needed treatment.  She said she wanted to give me a prescription and told me how to take it.  She also informed me that I was running a low temp, and that I likely had a virus that would run its course–not to worry.

She was extremely compassionate. I couldn’t help but notice it.

I left, went home and went about my life.  I felt better UNTIL the bill came, and it wasn’t about amount due in the bill that upset me.  When I saw the doctor’s name, I saw the letters P.A. after it. I didn’t see M.D.  Below her name,  I saw the name of another M.D. I had seen another time, and I knew her name, but I never saw her. 

Why was her name on the bill?

I was quite annoyed. What was going on?

I immediately ran to my computer and typed “P.A.” and what I found really disturbed me. I realized that I had never, ever saw a doctor during that visit.  I saw what is known as a “physician assistant”.  She’s not a registered nurse nor a nurse practitioner.  She’s a physician’s assistant. It’s a profession all to its own.

Have you heard of them?  Apparently they have been around forever!

I was really pissed off!

I realize I didn’t have any major medical problems–thank god–but don’t you think if someone comes in with a stethoscope around their neck, treats you and writes you prescriptions that they should be required by law to tell you that they are NOT a doctor??

I felt deceived. I still feel deceived.

I had just finished writing “Stephanie,” who I thought was a doctor, a glowing review.  Her review was sitting on the counter to go out in the mail the next day. I grabbed it and ripped it up and tossed it. I was not praising this tactic in any form. It’s interesting how her review came in before the bill, isn’t it?

About P.A. from the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA):

PAs deliver a broad range of medical and surgical services, including: 

• Conducting physical exams 
• Obtaining medical histories
• Diagnosing and treating illnesses 
• Ordering and interpreting tests 
• Counseling on preventive health care 
• Assisting in surgery 
• Prescribing medications

AAPA also says, “The average length of a PA education program is 27 months.”   Compare that to a real doctor who studies for YEARS.

Next time you see a doctor, don’t be so sure you are ACTUALLY seeing a doctor.

Remind me to tell you about my mom’s anesthesiologist next time, too.  She wasn’t who she seemed to be either!

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Our Vizio TV has been on the fritz for about a month now, and we kept hoping the problem would resolve.  Wishful thinking, I know.  It would suddenly power off for no reason, and many times after repeated replugging it in, it would reset and we’d get it to work again for an undetermined amount of time.  Sometimes the TV would work great for a week, and other times only a few minutes.  We suspected something is up with the timer, until I read that many other people are having similar problems with their Vizio TVs–even new ones right out of the box.

Finally on Saturday night, right in the middle of watching Dateline, the TV quit for the last time.  We haven’t been able to get it working again.

So we decided yesterday that we’d go look for a new TV.  As I stood at Best Buy, one TV truly stood out to both my husband and myself. It was the Samsung LED TV–any and all of them.  They were bright, vibrant and attractive to the eye, and when I ran over to the laptop sales, and looked at reviews, they were pretty decent.  We hemmed and hawed for a few hours and finally decided on a model, and you would guess it, they were out of stock.

They tried to sell us the floor model for 10% off, but that didn’t sound like a deal considering how many hours that TV was turned on.  We passed.

We decided to drive to another town today to pick up the model we wanted, but given that I have more time to do research, I am second guessing myself.  Why?  Because I was put off that all the Sony TVs I saw at the store were dim and dark.  Why would that be?  They have been notoriously good TVs so why would they display so bad? 

It was nagging at me, but I didn’t think it through.  It kept popping up in my mind and I needed to give it more thought.  Why would manufacturers put out a dull product?  Companies always shine everything up for sales, even if the guts suck…so what the heck was going on?

We even hit three stores and at all three, the Samsungs were glowing, the Sonys always sucked, and the rest were somewhere in the middle.

I even asked the guy at Best Buy, do you adjust these TVs?  He told me no.

Why wouldn’t they, I pondered?  It made absolutely no sense.   Logic would tell you that want all the TVs to look their best, right?  The sales guy told us they were all taken out of the box and turned on as shipped from the factory.  The factory, he said, puts them on their highest contrast setting.

I have no idea if that is factually true or not because it is a low stake scenario, and the young guy that told me this truly believed it.  I am certain of that.

As I sit here this morning and think about it, though, I can hear that that line is B.S.  Total B.S.

And then I found an article that said it all.   In the article, The Best HDTVs for 2012, was a sub-heading:  HDTV Salesman Tricks.  Yep. That’s it. It explained what bothered me so much about the Sony.

In this article, they write:

“Ever wonder why some HDTVs look so much better than others at the store? A common sales tactic that retailers use to upsell certain HDTV models is to modify their video signal. HDTVs with a dedicated video signal are working at their full capacity, whereas HDTVs that are all using a split signal will have significantly less strength, and therefore, not look as good…”

 And they go on… 

“But wait, there’s more! Some sets are purposely displayed with incorrect brightness and contrast balances. This is why some HDTVs look crisper and clearer than others: it’s because the department store is trying to make certain HDTVs look more favorable — typically, the ones whose inventory they are looking to reduce.. Don’t fall for it!”

Aha!  I had a nagging feeling and now I understand it.  It all makes sense.

You have to wonder if Samsungs give the highest profit margin to the stores, don’t you?

So now what do I do???

Where do I turn to buy a TV?  I remember being at Sams Club on Friday night and I was in awe of all of their TVs.  They ALL looked amazing.  Maybe I should just go there?

More thinking needed!!